Sunday, June 7, 2015

The TRC and CHA - some thoughts on an opportunity lost

This year's Canadian Historical Association (CHA) annual meeting ran from May 31st to June 3rd; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) closing activities spanned the same dates. Though both events were located in Ottawa, I am struck by how little interchange there was between the two. Where we could have had an event that was cohesive and powerful, instead the week felt fragmented and disengaged.

In panels about Aboriginal issues, presenters or audience members referred to the report and media coverage but, troublingly, none of the CHA sessions were specifically in dialogue with the TRC activities. While the TRC offered a livestream for those unable to attend in person, the University of Ottawa wifi was unable to cope with the influx of Congress attendees, much less with people streaming an hour or so of proceedings. There was no space available for people to watch a stream with a wired internet connection, in a group, with space for dialogue; no group transportation between the two events.

I think, also, of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE). Their keynote brought in Bolivia's Vice Minister of Decolonization, Félix Cárdenas Aguilar, to speak on decolonizing education. However, only a handful of papers (which I did not attend, not being registered for the CSSE) considered the history of indigenous education, passing up a valuable opportunity for sessions that engaged with the TRC. From my cursory reading of the CSSE programme, I saw a number of papers on Indigenous pedagogies and decolonization, and on the challenges of northern reserve education, to give a couple of examples. But so much appears to be missing: where was the panel on the Truth and Reconciliation commission? If the CHA is large, the CSSE is gargantuan - getting lost in a list of sessions is hard to avoid. In contrast to the CHA, which noted that particular sessions on Aboriginal history were part of a sponsored mini-conference, papers on Indigenous education in the CSSE proceedings were scattered about, so that there was no coherent way to find them and attend them.

The Congress as a whole offered two events that dovetailed with the TRC proceedings: May 30th saw Murray Sinclair in a standing-room-only Big Thinking lecture, entitled "What do we do about the legacy of Indian residential schools?" followed by a youth panel discussion on Reconciliation and the Academy. This featured an impressive pair of pre-teen presenters, both youth leaders in Ottawa, alongside more well-known speakers such as Cindy Blackstock, Tracy Coates, Imam Zijad Delic, and moderator Waubgeshig Rice. Both of these were well-attended and informative. But in the Congress programme, these were the only two sessions I saw on reconciliation. There were likely a few here and there in the programmes for various associations - but how to find them? We have such an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue at Congress, and for engaging with major debates, issues, etc. - so while I had a great time at the conference this year, and thoroughly enjoyed (though exhausted) myself, I left with a nagging sense of disappointment.

CSSE sessions on indigenous people, history, and education:
(this list is partially for my own notes, so that I remember to contact these scholars - or for whoever actually reads my blog who wants this info for their own purposes. Note that it's likely that I've missed a few entries that would be of interest for me, and that I haven't listed panels that aren't about history or reconciliation)

Julie Vaudrin-Charette (Ottawa); Getting Credit for White Settler Colonialism: A Historiography of Indigenous Education Policy in Canada

A Textual Analysis of Post-Secondary Funding in Indian Affairs Annual Reports: 1947 - 1990. Josephine Steeves (Saskatchewan)

Witnessing residential school testimonial texts as self study in the preparation of future teachers: Disrupting colonial futurist logics in education. Lisa Taylor (Bishop's) 

Working in Tandem: Federal-Provincial Collaboration in Indigenous Education, 1901-1951
Helen Raptis (Victoria) 


Using re-storying as a pedagogical tool to examine the Indian residential school experience with young non-Indigenous students: an exploration into notions of identity and societal responsibility. Daniela Bascunan (Toronto) (roundtable)

Addressing Truth and Reconciliation: Curriculum, Non-Aboriginal Teachers, and Public Education
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook (Ottawa), Jesse Butler (Ottawa), Ferne McFadden (Ottawa), Julie Vaudrin-Charette (Ottawa) (symposium) 
Engaging difficult conversations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous preservice teachers: Taking up historical responsibilities through Story and Literature. Lisa Taylor (Bishop's), Curran Jacobs (Bishop's) 


The complexities of youth civic engagement in decolonizing territories and post-colonial nations: The challenges for Tikkun--Pedagogies of repair and reconciliation. Yvette Daniel (Windsor), Lisa Korteweg (Lakehead), Heather Koller (Lakehead), Frances Cachon (Windsor), Erwin Selimos (Windsor), Ereblir Kadriu (University of Pristhina), Janet Tower (Grand Rapids Community College), Nombuso Dlamini (York), Cynthia Kwakyewah (York) 

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